Local News

Out of 45 marketing projects that received state funding last week, the City of Galax received the fourth-largest tourism grant.
The city’s award of $43,893 is right behind three recipients that were awarded $50,000 each — Virginia Arts Festival, Barter Theatre and the Roanoke Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau.

HILLSVILLE — Existential debates don’t often break out at government meetings, but the question whether a disbanded rescue squad does or does not exist arose at the Aug. 13 Hillsville Town Council meeting.
The question, raised by Council Member David Young, is this: if Hillsville Volunteer Rescue Squad no longer exists, then why does it have officers and how can it still own equipment and supplies?

HILLSVILLE — The Carroll County School Board has no intention for its high school sports teams to take the field against distant Franklin County and Patrick Henry, according to action taken at its August meeting.
The two schools in the Virginia High School League’s proposed River Ridge District are too far away and have the advantage of too many more students than Carroll for the playing field to be level, high school Principal Chuck Thompson and members of the school board agreed.

The City of Galax has contracted with North Carolina Granite Corporation to provide and install the memorial stones at the site of the Blue Ridge Veterans Memorial by Veterans Day.
City council received an update on the project at its Aug. 13 meeting. The large memorial is being constructed next to the Galax Public Library on West Stuart Drive.
The total cost to construct and install the monuments for this portion of the memorial is about $45,000.
Construction of the remaining foundations is almost complete and the site will be graded afterwards.

Firearms have been flying off store shelves all year in Virginia, but last month — the first in 20 years that didn’t limit buyers to one handgun — saw the most sales yet.
Background checks for firearms transactions spiked accordingly. In July, 29,072 checks were conducted by the Virginia State Police, a 29 percent increase over the same month last year.

HILLSVILLE — A public hearing on a potential wind farm on Stoots Mountain hasn’t cleared the air about what Carroll County supervisors should do about the possible renewable energy development.
County officials held a public hearing to get input on what citizens think after it became general knowledge that EDP Renewables has been exploring the ridge at Poplar Camp for a grouping of 24 wind turbines.

In recent years, the cost of cleaning up the dangerous chemicals left over at meth labs has trickled down to localities, but a proposed ordinance would instead pass costs to the individual responsible for the lab, Galax City Manager Keith Barker told Galax City Council.
Jim Cornwell, city attorney, has recommended that council consider adopting the ordinance.
While localities have been picking up the cost, the state passed new laws this year allowing a locality to pass these costs along to those convicted of operating a meth lab.

A private company that sought to provide natural gas service to the Twin Counties has stepped aside as a Carroll County government-led project proceeds.
Frontier Natural Gas had sought to fill the natural gas gap when Atmos Energy failed to provide service for years.
Frontier had petitioned the State Corporation Commission to install a natural gas system in the Carroll County and Hillsville area, where there is an existing access port in the Patriot pipeline.

HILLSVILLE — Town officials say that Hillsville is one of two possible locations being considered by a nationally known screen printing company.
If the company chooses to locate in Hillsville, it could mean a capital investment of between $1 and $2.5 million by the yet-unnamed entity, depending on whether it buys or leases the building, and the creation of up to 40 jobs, according to Mayor Greg Crowder.